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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) [Presidential pardon of James Keenan Jr. who in July 1859 in the District of Columbia had been convicted of arson]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00205 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Document signed Date: 16 January 1862 Pagination: 2 p. ; 42 x 27 cm Order a Copy

Pardoned by Abraham Lincoln near the end of his sentence because he was young and inexperienced and the tool of older persons when he committed his crime, and because he had petitioned for it. Countesigned by William H. Seward.

./No mention of petition of citizens in the granting; pardon perhaps thus solely self-generated by Keenan.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Seward, William H. (William Henry), 1801-1872

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